Read this column with the following in mind: There is no indication that LeBron James will join the Knicks. Aside from trying to read the tea leaves on the internet and media maven Stephen A. Smith hyping this move, it’s not being discussed in NBA circles, at least the ones I frequent. It is not mentioned as being present.
In fact, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, a leading agent on record, has said that no trade will take place, whether to the Knicks or elsewhere. LeBron doesn’t have a no-trade clause, but no team would sign him without his full consent.
After all, it’s LeBron James. His relocation will require a concerted effort. And since this concerns the future of a Hall of Famer, I’m not going to read too much into Friday’s split between Paul and Leon Rose, as reported by the Post. Forging a good business relationship with Klutch Sports is important for the Knicks, not because of whether LeBron will be available someday, but because the agency has a large number of clients within the NBA.
But from a basketball standpoint, I can confidently say that it makes a lot of sense for LeBron to want to leave the Lakers. And for the first time in his very long career, the Knicks (32-18) were the better option. Because the Knicks (32-18) are closer to the title than his own team (26-25).
That wasn’t so evident Saturday when the Lakers dominated the Knicks in the fourth quarter of a 113-105 win. But the Knicks were also a skeleton crew without OG Anunoby, Julius Randle and Quentin Grimes. They played a bad game, missed a ton of shots, and eventually the injuries caught up with them. They are better than the Lakers, as they showed at Crypto.com Arena earlier this season.
They really just had a night off.
“We just missed shots,” Isaiah Hartenstein said. “From top to bottom. It was one of those games where we were missing something.”
Either way, James has to understand that his La La Land team is pretty mediocre. He’s getting irritated. The four-time champion tweeted an hourglass emoji on Wednesday, sending a clear message of impatience and running out of time.
James then declined to clarify the tweet before Saturday’s game against the Garden. He also did not want to discuss his contract options with the Lakers or his own future. There is no perfunctory “I like it here!” or “My preference is to stay!”
The short answer to these two questions is “no.”
Smart people watching the situation believe this is a play by James that will prompt the Lakers to make a major trade to upgrade their roster. In other words, use their draft picks to give him something easier to work with. Atlanta’s Dejounte Murray comes to mind. Passive-aggressive tweets won’t be a new strategy for LeBron, which will do nothing to help him recoup any future assets. He used this playbook in Cleveland.
And really, who can blame LeBron? He’s the oldest player in the NBA and still has an All-Star appearance and a split decision in his Father Time.
But his point guard was D’Angelo Russell, who was re-signed for some phony reason after poaching Houdini in the playoffs. Russell was so far behind in the win that he sat on the bench for the entire fourth quarter when the Lakers pulled away on Saturday. Austin Reeves is the third player, behind James and Anthony Davis. The power forward is Rui Hachimura. Max Christie will come off the bench. Jackson Hayes and Christian Wood received minutes Saturday.
what are we doing here? LA Ham & Eggers.
James is talented enough to take a good team to a championship level if he wants to. That’s why it makes more sense for him to be with the Knicks, Suns, or Heat. But he’s no longer good enough to lead a bad team like he was with the Cavs circa 2007 and 2018 or the Lakers circa 2024.
That doesn’t mean magic can’t happen while James is LeBron. And he was certainly motivated by MSG. He loves playing here, calling Saturday “one of the prestigious arenas played in the history of the sport.” He wasn’t going to leave without a victory.
James scored 24 points in a 40-minute nationally televised spectacle, with the stands filled with celebrities eyeing No. 23. This environment was not surprising, as the NBA still needs James. The sad reality for Adam Silver is that he relies on the 39-year-old as his biggest attraction.
No one has come forward to dethrone LeBron as the face of the NBA. One reason is that Stephen Curry’s Warriors are even worse than the Lakers, and the league’s best players are international players with accents (Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid). And sometimes they are. Partly because they’re all centers, and Jokic in particular has no interest in promoting himself.
Imagine what would have happened if Tim Duncan didn’t let Kobe Bryant carry the torch.
LeBron, unlike Jokic, loves attention. Spotlight. Drama. He always is. Personality-wise, he was always a good fit for his MSG. But until this season, nothing has been a better fit from a basketball standpoint.
I can’t say it will always happen, but I like the idea.
